Category: Reviews

Geraldine Quinn – The Passion of Saint Nicholas

By Peter Newling

Geraldine Quinn has been delighting audiences with her stellar performing and song-writing abilities since the mid 2000s. A multiple winner of the MICF’s Golden Gibbo Award, she is well entrenched as one of Australia’s most loved and respected comedy and cabaret performers. This show carries on that proud tradition.

The subject matter is difficult. The death of a family member is awful. When that family member is a sibling dying way too young of a form of cancer, it’s worse. But somehow, Quinn has taken this dark base and constructed something joyful, life-affirming and (at appropriate moments) laugh out loud funny.

In The Passion of Saint Nicholas, Quinn explores her relationship with her late brother, hilariously relaying stories about childhood rivalries, juvenile one-upmanship, family favouritism and coping with loss. The half a dozen songs created for the show help punctuate the narrative, each differing from the last in style and energy. The songs move effortlessly from earnest sincerity to smiling piss-take and back again. She really is a terrific song writer. And her singing, as we all know, is outstanding.

Shout out to Declan Fay, the director of the show. The pacing and intensity levels throughout the hour were spot on. And the show is backed up by a first class sound plot.

This is an intensely personal piece, but with themes that will resonate with audiences young and old. The standing ovation offered at the end of the show I attended was heartfelt and genuine. It’s a remarkable piece, by a remarkable performer.

Get in quick. Geraldine Quinn – The Passion of Saint Nicholas is only playing until April 7 at the Malthouse, at 6:45pm and 5:45pm on the Sunday.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/the-passion-of-saint-nicholas

Stuart Daulman – Into the Galaxy

By Nick Bugeja

Stuart Daulman has laboured away on comedy stages and rooms at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) for nearly as long as some of his audience members have been alive. He’s a versatile and talented comic performer whose passion and commitment to the form is evident in his latest show, Into the Galaxy, an engrossing foray into an intergalactic world inhabited by Daulman’s cast of characters, not least himself. As it develops, you realise the show is less about a whimsical space story and more a self-examination of Daulman’s personal and professional aspirations, anxieties and convictions.

In this fictional world, Daulman had become an astronaut, and he’s setting out on a mission to space, in the company of an artificial intelligence computer much like HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (minus the malice and malevolence). His take-off and journey into space from the comfort of his spaceship is pre-recorded, and displayed on a projector. These sequences give structure to the show, and serve the incident purpose of giving Daulman enough time to change between the well-curated costumes for each of his characters.

The first of these is 12-year-old Daulman, then a South African resident of ‘Jozi’ with dreams of entering into space. Daulman winds back the clock when playing his younger self, and executes a perfect South African (or rather, South Efrican) accent. A surprise cameo from former President Nelson Mandela makes for great, good-natured comedy, characteristic of the entire show.

Daulman’s other sketch performances—as a self-promoting businessman who he’d encountered at astronaut school, practicing his golf swing, and an alien suspended in space—were equally relished by the audience. The entire performance was marked by the thought and work—evidenced by each gesture, facial expression, staging choice, costume, and joke—Daulman had invested to create a funny, personal and reflective show.

Into the Galaxy is a breath of fresh air at MICF, amid a catalogue of largely
homogeneous stand-up performances. It’s a living and breathing performance by a man clearly passionate about the arts, comedy and performance, and delivers a steady stream of laughs throughout. Stuart Daulman is a comic workhorse whose preferred genre of comedy may not enjoy the widest appeal, though it should.

Into the Galaxy is on at the Victoria Hotel until 21 April.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/into-the-galaxy

Dan Rath – Pariah Carey

By Nick Bugeja

There’s something about Dan Rath. There are few comedians who, at the mere sight of them, elicit smiles and laughter. Rath is one of them; his utterly unorthodox, controlled mania on stage is unfailingly amusing, as he saunters around the stage incessantly rubbing his hair, deliberately stumbling over his words, and drinking what he claims is ‘lighter fluid’ (spoiler: it’s really sparkling water).

Almost nothing Rath says is even remotely plausible: he states that he both lives above a ‘backpackers’ and also at his parents’ home, that one of his main interests is hurling activated e-scooters into rivers, and that he’s been afflicted by Lyme’s disease after being bitten by a tic in the CBD. There’s no pretense about any of this: they’re all unashamed lies, and in their absurdity, there’s nothing else to do but to break out in laughter.

Rath is an acquired taste (perhaps just like the ‘lighter fluid’ he’s consuming during the show), though those yet to consider themselves Rath acolytes are most definitely missing out on something special. His comedy has an addictive quality, and you’re waiting to see how he can surpass the ridiculousness, and creativity, of his most recent one-liner. You won’t be waiting for long: Rath’s style is one of rapid-fire joke after joke, delivered without ever breaking the strange and morose and ‘unwell’ character he inhabits onstage.

Rath’s capacity to generate comedy through the specificity of his jokes, which in turn creates humorous imagery for the audience, is unparalleled. By dropping in reference to businesses like JB-Hi-Fi, Boost Juice, Grill’d, Optus, Uber Eats in his act, Rath elevates each joke of his to another level of outlandishness, and hilarity.

Rath’s not alone in trading in this kind of comedy; there’s a small nucleus of Australian comics who embrace the nonsensical, the offbeat, and at times, the outrageous. But he stands at the pinnacle of this comedic form, and his show, Pariah Carey, provides almost 60-minutes of unrelenting, escapist humour.

Pariah Carey is showing at the Melbourne Town Hall until 21 April.  

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/pariah-carey

The Isaac Haigh Variety Hour

By Colin Flaherty

As we arrive at Scrimpy Studios we are led past the dressing rooms where we witness chat amongst cast and crew. It appears that all is not well. Once seated we are kept entertained with groovy music and voice over facts about the (mock) TV studio in which we are situated. After an introduction from the Floor Manager (and the obligatory laughter and applause practice) we are ready to begin the live taping of The Isaac Haigh Variety Hour.

This was a brilliant piece of immersive theatre. The room was set up as a 1970s television studio complete with multiple cameras (disguised as analogue period-looking devices to boot) which are fed to static filled screens at the side of stage (whether or not the performance was being filmed for other purposes is a mystery). Although it looked like it was produced on a budget (even for the time period) all the synthetic fibres and open collars transported me back to watching the Penthouse Club back in the day. With the “cast” remaining in character throughout, the immersion was so well done that it’s sometimes hard to determine whether things said on stage were from real life or just part of the show.

The show consisted primarily of various musical acts singing their wonderfully daggy and often inappropriate songs. Haigh once again showed off his awesome singing talents by playing a part in every musical act (along with Isabelle Carney in a jesus-loving brother-sister act ala Donnie & Marie). There were also appearances from the Don Scrimpy Dancers, puppet mailman Twinkle Toes delivering the mailbag segment and the characters from children’s show “The Wibbly Wobbly Wood”. We were so transfixed by the colour and movement that it was easy to miss some of the crew slipping away to inhabit some of the on screen roles.

The TV hour was broken up with commercial breaks featuring some wonderfully amusing businesses and causes. They featured period correct production values and plenty of problematic content for our modern sensibilities. By the end of the taping you were itching to head to the nearest Dimpies Roadhouse after all those customer testimonials!

There is a different guest performer for each show. In our case it was Hannah Camilleri as “The Mechanic” who performed a somewhat improvised piece about a car repair for one of the audience members. She mostly kept to the time period, even admonishing the punter when they offered up modern concepts in their interactions.

Last year’s Songs from the Heart in the Hole of my Bottom (with Aiden Wilcox) set the bar quite high for the “all singing and dancing shows of kitsch” genre. Haigh and team have once again succeeded in bringing us another hilarious, sweaty and chaotic period piece. A groovy time was had by all.

The Isaac Haigh Variety Hour is on at Trades Hall until April 7

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/the-isaac-haigh-variety-hour

Damien Power – Not So Funny Now Is It?

By Nick Bugeja

Without a doubt, Damien Power is one of Australia’s pre-eminent comic minds working today. That estimation includes expats who have established themselves in the bigger markets of the UK and the US, à la Jim Jefferies and Steve Hughes. Power’s latest show, Not So Funny Now Is it?, is surely one of his best yet, and only bolsters the claim that he is veritably unmissable at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) this year.

He’s been plying his trade in Australian pubs, comedy clubs and entertainment venues for years, and consistently churning out material and shows outstripping many of his contemporaries. You only need to look back to the last few MICF galas to see the gulf in quality in Power’s comedy and other prominent acts, who often reek of sameness in terms of material, delivery and sensibility. Yet he’s yet to get his dues.

Not So Funny Now Is It? should be the show which catapults Power to comedy stardom. He returns to his familiar themes—of the generational divide, shifting values and ethics in Australian society, the place and utility of religion, mental health, geopolitics and international relations—with a renewed sharpness and vigour, using a mixture of well-executed stand-and-deliver bits and act outs. Power takes on both big (corporate players like Nike) and small (meth addicts on public transport) targets, and his jokes always have a social commentary component, giving them a resonance beyond the laughter which abounded through the Comedy Republic.

Considering the advent of so-called ‘TikTok comedians’ and the generally unchallenging and ‘play it safe’ core of Australian comedy acts, it’s nothing less than a duty for all good comedy lovers to attend Power’s Not So Funny Now Is It? If we were all to follow this edict, Power may just finally reach the popularity and acclaim which he is overdue.

Not So Funny Now Is It? is showing at Comedy Republic until 21 April

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/not-so-funny-now-is-it

Arj Barker The Mind Field

By Nick Bugeja

Australia has well and truly adopted American comic Arj Barker as one of its own. Like Ross Noble, Jimeoin or Stephen K. Amos, he’s been a staple on the Australian comedy circuit for decades and cultivated a solid fanbase which shows up for him across Australia, whether appearing in Melbourne or Mildura. It’s not hard to see why Australian crowds are drawn to Barker’s style of comedy: he has a unique comedic voice, and a suite of quirky jokes which are still accessible to a wide audience.

Barker’s latest show, The Mind Field, opens with a flurry of puns and double entendres which serve as a light entrĂ©e dish for what is to come. These jokes are often at Barker’s own expense, and many of them are some of the strongest lines across the entire show. He runs through material, with aplomb, on his own insecurities and the misunderstandings they create, the disappointments of buffets and ‘all you can eat’ establishments, and why we should be sceptical when told that people travel to a town or city to just to visit a specific restaurant.

The core of Barker’s performance—as per the title of his show—revolves around the idea that there is no external, objective reality in and of itself, but rather is constructed by our own consciousness. This requires some exposition which is, rather surprisingly, not littered with jokes. Once Barker makes his way through the exposition, there’s a real payoff: he fires off a litany of jokes which are, in equal measure, philosophical and facile, and it is this combination of seemingly antithetical qualities which makes this part of the show excel.

Barker’s The Mind Field is a wide-ranging show which touches on the personal, the philosophical, and the downright silly. Barker’s range is beyond that of many other comics, who prefer to confine themselves to either a high or low brow brand of comedy. Relying much on his natural talents as a performer, and some strong writing of individual jokes and sequences, The Mind Field will satisfy Barker fans and those few unfamiliar with his comedy. Punters may even take away some newfound insights into the nature of reality, and the role we play in shaping that reality every day.

The Mind Field is on at the Athenaeum Theatre until 21 April.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/arj-barker-the-mind-field